Quadrangular Tournament - Liverpool

December 8-10, 2006

All in all it was a great success. The kids had a great trip and a good chance to play for their country. They had access to great coaching from IM Stephen Mannion, Graeme Kafka, Ivan Stokes and Phil Thomas. The experience will undoubtful be useful for them in their further development.

On the Friday we had a long bus trip down, made ¾ of an hour longer when the bus was stuck behind a broken down lorry on the road from Stirling to Glasgow. Still the bus trip was enjoyable and a light laughter was heard most of the way down.

On the Saturday we hung out at the Travelodge till noon when we went to the playing area. The Welsh team had a worse trip than us. Their bus lost two tires and was seriously delayed for the first round, which delayed the start of the game for the u-16 team.

Saturday evening we went to Brewers Fayre, who were very good to us. We had a meal for 34 and had a really good time.

On the Sunday we played 10.00 and left for the beautiful North just after noon. The u-16 team was clear favourites in their group, which was played with a strange tournament system, because the Midlands had been unable to field a team. Because of these problems it was decided not to have an u-16 event next year.

We have a great team, who all get along really well. They had a great weekend, because they were here together, but the event is not right for them. The English juniors in that age group do not value it highly enough.

The u-14s was close to the best possible team. The three best u-12s were moved a team up (to boards 2, 5 and 7) because of shortage of u14s willing to take part. Though some disagreed with this decision I have no reason to regret it. And one of our top scorers in the weekend was Ali Roy, our normal nr. 2 u12 and here board 5 u14. The absence of their three best players did disadvantage the u12s somewhat. They found themselves battling greater powers, showed great courage and will to fight, but did never have a real chance to win their group. As I had predicted this would mainly be a learning experience (and a great trip) and I think it was.

Jacob Aagaard

photos by Ann Roy

	Under 16
Letter	Team	Rd One	Rd Two	Rd Three		Total	Posn
A	North	5.5	4	4		13.5	2nd
B	Wales	0	1.5	1		2.5	3rd
C	Scotland	5.5	5.5	6		17	1st
	Under 14
Letter	Team	A	B	C	D	Total	Posn
A	North	xxxxxxxx	3	6	4.5	13.5	3rd
B	Scotland	7	xxxxxxxx	7	5	19	1st
C	Wales	4	3	xxxxxxxx	5	12	4th
D	Midlands	5.5	5	5	xxxxxxxx	15.5	2nd
	Under 12
Letter	Team	A	B	C	D	Total	Posn
A	North	xxxxxxxx	8	10	6	24	1st
B	Scotland	2	xxxxxxxx	5	4	11	3rd
C	Wales	0	5	xxxxxxxx	5.5	10.5	4th
D	Midlands	4	6	4.5	xxxxxxxx	14.5	2nd

 

Grading data

Based on ECF and Wales Lists (any errors email CS Grading)